Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-03-03
FOOD RESOURCES.

Inc ultcTiOT eHecJ Vi tnt ItdoOniHS
of Nautilus ON the data Of population is
that in spite of wars, pestilence and
famine, the increase will still continue.
even if the ratio be very small, and
that unless some artificial check is en-
ployed, the earth will eventually be
swarming with many more inhabitants
than her products will support.
Since Nautilus propounded his theory |
of population, however, enormous adj
vances have been made in our knowl-
edge of the natural resources which
may be used for the sustaining of
human life. A number of new sub
stances, or substances not previously
suspected of having that quality, have
been added to the list of foods. Among
these is the seed of the cotton plant.
1t will probably surprise very large
number of persons to learn that this
product is available as nourishment for
the human species, and much more to
be informed to how great an extent it
is already employed for that purpose.
Nutritious oils and especially those OF
vegetable origin have been extensively
used as food by various nations. The
cultivation of the olive appears to have
been earliest known in Canaan, and it
was greatly praised by the Hebrew
writers after their monotonous forty
years diet of mama in the wilderness.
From Asia Minor the olive tree was
transplanted to the mainland of the Pc
lasgians and the islands of the Ionians,
and Homer does honor to it in the
Odyssey. Gradually the oil expressed
from the fruit became the great staple
of food for the southern nations of
Europe and the peoples Of Southwest
ern Asia and Northern Africa. The
Romans used it far more freely at table
than the Greeks who adopted its cult
walton at an earlier date, and one of
their notable adages asserted that there
were two fluids which were essential to
a long and pleasant life-wine and oil.
Very few Anglo-Saxons realize the
extent to which olive oil enters into the
daily diet of the inhabitants of those
countries of which it has for so many
centuries principal product
That cotton seed could come forward
as the chief competitor of the olive would
very probably have been doubted by
Nautilus, had such prediction been
| 10 10 Vaf 10 a
prospective Importance of this COM
modify. The manufacture of cotton
seed is rapidly increasing and has al
ready attained to very great proper
tons.
The cotton plant is known to be in
digenous to both Asia and America. 1t
was cultivated in India five hundred
years before Christ, in China two hun
bred years before Christ, and was found
by the Spaniards in Mexico in 1919 of
the present era, and in Peru in 1881.
In Egypt it was also raised in very
ancient times.
The first decorticated cotton seed
that was known in Europe was export
ed from Egypt in 1852. From that
time dates the knowledge of its useful
qualities, aside from the mere propa-
cation of the cotton plant. 1t is singu-
lar that not until much later did the
,, cotton planters in this country begin to
understand its real value. Its first use
in their hands was as fertilizer fol-
land on which cotton was produced. II
was found that the seed restored to the
soil in good part the essential elements
; which were taken from it by the crop
For nearly century prior to that time
the seed had been regarded as useless
and, after being separated from tn,
fiber of the boil, had either been burned
or thrown into the sea The next ad
8 vance in knowledge on the part of thu
, planters was the discovery that the
!, seed was an excellent food for cattle
8 For good many years it was employed
for this purpose, but at length it wa
found to be too rich to effect the great
! est good in that way. 1t impaired the
health of the stock to which it wa
given. A like objection was made t,
: it as manure. 1t caused the cottol
a plants to grow too rank, and did no
: tend to the production of as fine tibe
, as other materials that could be EN-.
ployed for that object. The desirable
y ity of adapting it to the digestion Q
: cattle led to the expression of the oil
9 The seed was by this operation forme,
: into cakes, which were used both a
forage and manure.
Only sixteen years ago this process be
= gan to be generally adopted in tn
= South, and as great quantities of Of
;. were thus produced which was natu
: rally found to be useful for many pun
- poses market for it was desirable. ]
= did not take long to discover that tn
. qualities of the new product were
= good deal like those of olive oil, an
4 that it could be substituted for the LAT
% ter or sold for like uses. This was tn
commencement of an enormous trad,
The business of making cotton-seed o
% has within very brief time grown t
Il astonishing proportions.
II The example of this industry serve
% ,nly as one illustration of the fact tn;
4 the world is full of unsupported foo
A resources. A number of other moder
n instances might be given of this fac
q among them those which are derive
r from an improved knowledge of chen
q istry. The vista of the possible el
, largement of the food supply which
n thus suggested must. relegate to an e.
,e tremely remote period the time wht
{ the prophetic theory of Nautilus ne,
n become, if ever, cause
,e serious inquietude to mankind.
n may be added that this is b
- one of the important features of Il